Wednesday Wonders: A Recipe That Passed The Test!!

 Recently I saw a few episodes of Brand New Vegan on YouTube.  Also I saw someone reviewing recipes from Chuck Underwood's book about vegan comfort foods.  Since Dear One is leaning more towards plants again, I decided to give another look at Brand New Vegan.  This the recipe I tried:

My Grandson's Favorite Air Fried Tofu (I will let you go to the link to get the actual recipe...)

Extra firm tofu (I used Super Firm tofu in case I did not have time to press it, which time I did have so it was a moot issue...)

For the marinade:

Soy sauce
Vegetable broth (I used water and some  teriyaki sauce to give it a little flavor)
Minced garlic
Rice vinegar
Maple syrup
Cornstarch

For the "breading":

Granulated garlic

Granulated onion

Smoked paprika

Cornstarch

These are the ingredients from Chuck's recipe.  The process is to slice the block of tofu in half horizontally and set it to draining on paper towels on top of a cutting board with another cutting board and more paper towels on top then a heavy item. I used the cute little 6" Lodge cast iron skillet and the even cuter heart-shaped  Lodge cast iron skillet as the pressing agents.

Chuck puts the marinade ingredients in a quart jar with a cover then adds the pressed  and diced tofu and shakes and lets rest, shakes and lets rest, for a quite a while so the tofu can soak up the flavor.

Next he puts the breading into a gallon ziplock bag along with the drained-from-the-marinade-tofu and shakes gently until all the tofu is covered in the breading.  Bake 400 degrees F in an air fryer for 15-20 minutes, shaking the basket every five minutes to keep from sticking.

At that point I varied from his plan.  We had some leftover matchstick carrots, half a sliced sweet onion, and half a chopped red pepper.  I poured a tiny bit of olive oil in the frying pan, added the vegetables and started cooking them while the tofu was in the air fryer.  By the time the tofu was about done, so were the vegetables cooked enough to be pleasant to eat. I added the tofu and the leftover marinade to the pan and cooked until all the vegetables and tofu were nicely covered with sauce.

Finally I poured this over some Ramen noodles I had cooked in plain water without the seasoning packet and mixed them all together.

I put it on the table and let Dear One serve himself.  He took a serving.  Then he took ANOTHER serving.  And if that was not enough, he said, "This is pretty good."  That is not something we hear in this house very often!  Made me happy.

This is not a good picture but you get the idea.  Go for it. It really is pretty good.

Food Friday: G-BOMBS Plus Meal

When I was reading a Dr. Joel Furhman book, whose title escapes me at the moment, but it might have been The End of Diabetes this time,  I first learned about G-BOMBS.  I thought that idea was a good one.

G-BOMBS is short for:
Greens
Beans
Onions
Mushrooms
Berries
Seeds

All these foods are great for fighting cancer as well as so many other chronic diseases.  I decided to make a meal with G-BOMBS and see if I could get Dear One to eat it.

When I made this I very carefully wrote down the "recipe".  I thought I put it in my Day One journal, but I do not find it there...so this is my memory of what I put in the pan:

1 red onion, finely diced

8 white mushrooms, peeled and VERY FINELY chopped

1 red bell pepper and 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 can red beans in chili sauce

1 cup brown rice cooked in Instant pot with 1 cup water for 28 minutes on HIGH then release pressure naturally (yes, I use the same amount of water as rice when cooking in the Instant Pot and it comes out perfectly.  I just about always cook on HIGH for 28 minutes and release pressure naturally.  Sometimes I add a little miso paste to the water for flavor.)

1 bunch of kale fresh from the garden, washed, de-stemmed, finely chopped then put in the Instant Pot on top of the rice and water.  Yes, it is going to be cooked to heck but that is my aim.  I want it as invisible as possible for obvious reasons!

1 heaping Tablespoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

While the rice and kale were cooking, I water sautéed the onions, peppers, and mushrooms until they were very tender.  At that point I tossed in the garlic and spices for about two minutes.  

Added the can of beans with liquid and stirred well.  Added in the cooked rice and kale and mixed until well conglomerated.  (Be sure the heat is on low.)  Covered the pan and let simmer for 5-10 minutes for flavors to mix.  Passed a little salt at the table for those who love salt.

We had blackberries for dessert.  The only G-BOMB we did not have was seeds but we could have thrown in some pumpkin or sunflower seeds in either the meal or on the berries...but we did not.  Also, I knew Dear One would take the peanut butter jar and a sleeve of crackers up to the "man cave" sometime during the evening.

All in all, it was a successful meal.

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Light Vegetable and Bean Soup

We had about 1/2 cup of dried white beans sitting on the counter who were just dying to be used up.  I put them in a bowl of water and let then sit overnight. And then one more night, then rinsed them really well and dropped them into the Instant Pot.

Two medium red potatoes, skins on,  were diced, one sweet onion was diced, and two cloves of garlic were chopped and all were thrown into the Instant Pot inner liner bowl.

Next I threw in probably 1/2 cup of uncooked macaroni and 2 Tablespoons of Kirkland's No Salt Seasoning.  Finally I put in 1 1/2 quarts of homemade vegetable broth.

Because I doubted if Dear One would buy into this "using up of things we had lying around waiting to be used",  I set the timer on high pressure for 45 minutes. I did not care if the soup was mushy.  I like mushy.

When the soup had cooled down naturally for 15 minutes, I checked it out.  It was so lightly flavored that I stirred in 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon powder. It tasted really good to me at that point.  (As you can tell by this, I am a salt person...) . Dear One did eat part of a bowl, but he had already eaten scalloped potatoes and Gardein Non Chicken tenders, so he was not too hungry.  No problem.  More for me.

Food Friday: Refrigerator Soup, More or Less

When we were growing up Mother used to take all the leftovers in the refrigerator that were on the verge and threw them into a big soup pot.  Those soups were absolutely delicious.  Of course, there was no way ever to duplicate them since there was no recipe...just a dib of this and a dab of that until the pot was full and ready to heat and eat.  Well, I just did the same thing, sort of.

We had carrots, celery, onions, broccoli, and other things in the refrigerator that needed to be used.  The next day was going to be very taxing to me physically so I wanted food ready the instant we got home. So I chopped vegetables and put them in the refrigerator overnight.  In the morning I added the dibs and dabs and started the Crockpot on Low and set it for 8 hours.  When I got home there was some truly delicious soup.  Even Dear One liked it.  He had arrived home an hour before I did and was sitting on the couch fat and happy after a big bowl of soup.  Well, definitely not fat, but doesn't that have a nice ring to it?!

What I did:

1/2 pound carrots, peeled and sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
2 small russet potatoes, scrubbed and diced
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 head broccoli, chopped VERY fine.  No need to throw broccoli in anyone's unsuspecting face...!

These were stored in the refrigerator overnight.

Since I had almost 3 cups of Soy Curls that I had purchased at the New Seasons Market, I put them in a large pot,  put in 4 or 5 cups of water then stirred in 2 Tablespoons of the savory seasoning I blogged about some time ago plus 2 heaping Tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon Roasted Vegetable Base. I stirred this well then covered and let sit on the counter overnight.

In the morning I put the vegetables plus the Soy Curls and their broth into the Crockpot.  Way not enough ingredients so I took a half can of refried beans and stirred them in.  There was a 15-ounce can of diced fire-roasted tomatoes I tossed in, then a big jar of Salsa Verde.  I added a teaspoon of chili powder and a Tablespoon of granulated garlic.  When this was all nicely stirred, I added the last of the homemade vegetable broth and more water to bring it up to 3/4 full in the 7-quart Crockpot, turned it on low for 8 hours and walked the long way to the office.  I walked an even longer way home from the office and collapsed in my chair, too tired to eat but happy that Dear One pronounced the soup good.  After half an hour or so I had life enough to eat some. It was really good.

This soup had the most flavorful broth.  Soup is all about broth to me....

If you don't know what Soy Curls are, they are soy beans that have been cooked, cooled, then extruded into some sort of shape then dried.  They taste like nothing until you soak them in some sort of broth.  Then you can use them in many ways.  They have texture, unlike tofu, and are really worth trying.  You can make "chicken" salad with them.  You can make "tuna" salad with them.  You can make "beef stroganoff" with them.  So many things.  And don't mind a bit.

These are the soy curls that have been soaking overnight and have plumped up beautifully. They were the last thing I threw into the pot before adding broth water to make lots more broth.

Food Friday: Vegetable Salad

The grocery trip while on vacation did not net the complete list of food items.  What we did find was:

Bag of vegetable salad (lettuce, radishes, carrots, garden peas, bell peppers)
Red bell pepper bagged individually
Broccoli crown
Bag of dried pinto beans

How I made this into food for several meals:

Opened the bag of pinto beans.  Sorted them into the insert basket (not the stainless steel liner bowl) for the Instant Pot.  Yes, I did bring the Instant Pot on vacation.  Rinsed the beans very well in the sink then placed the basket into the stainless steel liner bowl and covered the beans with 2-3 inches of water over the top.  Set this back into the Instant Pot and selected High Pressure and Adjusted the time to 45 minutes, put the cover on, and forgot about it.  I REALLY forgot about it.  When I paid attention again the beans have been on the warming cycle for more than two hours.  There is no question but what they were very well cooked, though remarkably, not mushy!  That was thrilling.

Using a leftover foil salad container from a previous salad my sister had brought with some pizza the other night, I placed 1/3 of the vegetable salad--I think it was by Dole--quite a lot of broccoli florets, 1/3 of the red bell pepper, diced, the last tomato chopped up,  half a cup of the cooked pinto beans, a little of the Spicy Peanut Sauce and a few shakes of Tajin Classico.  I did the best I could to toss it, but it was a pretty full container.  Another trip out at a Dollar Tree I found a large salad bowl with cover.  I realized when we got back to the unit that I should have gotten a container for the beans since I may not finish them before we are ready to go home...

Anyway, it was a delicious salad and made a wonderful breakfast.  I can make two more like it.

Food Friday: Sort of Quick, Sort of Braised, Carrots on Vacation

Deep colored vegetables and fruits are supposed to be very good for our bodies.  I eat the darker colored vegetables whenever I can.

On vacation last week my sister and I went to a thrift store and found several really good things, including a folding steamer basket.  When we left on vacation this time, I had thrown most of the vegetables and fruits in our refrigerator into a cooler bag to take with us to eat up.  (NOTE TO SELF:  Do NOT do this again!!!  It is too much bother.  Instead  {new note to self!} save money all year so we can eat out on vacation most meals.)

We did not use the steamer last week, but this week, I put the steamer basket in a wonderful heavy pot that was here in the unit with two cups of water in the bottom and started the pot on medium high heat.  (I discovered the reason the steamer basket had been donated to the Salvation Army:the third leg had broken off.  Nevertheless it was still very usable, though it listed a little towards Sawyers'...)

More or less braised carrots.  Really delicious!

In the meantime I had peeled and cut into sticks about 3 inches long nearly a pound of carrots.  I put them into the steamer, covered the pot, and let them steam for about 6 minutes, until the carrots were tender crisp.

When the carrots were cooked enough to suit me,  I put about two teaspoons of butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet and melted it over medium heat.  After adding the cooked carrots I put them into the melted butter and stirred gently.  When they all were shiny with butter, I sprinkled on one teaspoon of granulated sugar and stirred again.  I turned off the heat and stirred and tossed the carrots for a couple of minutes then served.  They were really yummy. 

There are more carrots in the refrigerator so I will make this again.  Maybe next time Dear One will eat one or two sticks...but I am not counting on it.